Bob's Burgers

Bob's Burgers is an American animated television sitcom created by Loren Bouchard for the FOX Broadcasting Company, starring H. Jon Benjamin. The show, according to Fox's publicity Web site, is about "a man, his family and their floundering burger joint. Despite the greasy counters, lousy location and occasionally spotty service, Bob and his lovable and quirky family are convinced their burgers are their ticket to success".

Loren Bouchard stated that Bob's Burgers came out of the fact that Fox's animation brand centers mostly on family, but that he also wanted to dabble in workplace comedy.

The show has started to pick up a cult following, though has recieved mixed reviews with critics.

Tropes used in Bob's Burgers include:
  • 555: The number of Bob's cab.
  • The Ace: Jimmy Pesto
  • Actually Pretty Funny: Linda towards one of Bob's jokes about her being a nag.
    • Despite warning Linda not to start singing all week again, when she belts out a musical Big No, spins around, and falls on the bed, Bob lets out a chuckle.
    • Heh, "dudereses".
  • Adorkable: Tina, taken up a notch in "Hamburger Dinner Theater".
  • Affably Evil: The robber from "Hamburger Dinner Theater", who robs the restaurant and then sings a duet with Linda before leaving. Then he comes over the next day and is almost requested to do the same thing again for a second time by Linda before he runs away from the cops.
    • Mickey, the bank robber from "Bob Day Afernoon", turned out to be a prety nice guy as well.
      • The landlord seems friendly enough, for being basically a James Bond villain.
  • All Girls Like Ponies: Tina.
  • All Part of the Show: Initially averted then played straight in "Hamburger Dinner Theater". The over-the-top murder scene the first night caused someone to call the police, while the real robbery on the second night gave them a popularity boost.
  • Ambiguously Brown: Bob and his family. In-Universe too, since in the "Torpedo" episode he's asked if he's an immigrant.
  • Analogy Backfire: Bob's family is not quite sure the circumstances that would account for hitting candy from a baby's hand....with a bat
  • Animal Wrongs Group: Two in "Sacred Cow": the film documentary group that glued a wig to a castrated steer, and the discount petting zoo that stole the cow from the restaurant and looks like it abuses its animals.
  • Berserk Button: Thinking of insulting Bob's kids, perhaps by calling them freaky? Probably not a good idea. Also, try to avoid talking about Lobsterfest.
  • Big No: In Linda's butt dream.
  • Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Gene's line in the episode "Lobsterfest".

Gene: Gay, mythical creature, gay mythical creature.

  • Brick Joke: In "The Belchies", Teddy invites Bob to watch a game and have a make your own three bean salad meal and Bob had to bring his own beans. Later, a construction worker says he went to a make your own three bean salad meal and he didn't bring any beans.
  • Butt Monkey/The Chew Toy: The Fuzzy Buddies
  • Cain and Abel: Linda and her sister Gayle. Gayle is the Cain, with a compulsion to steal any guy Linda likes just because Linda likes them. Linda is fine with this and uses it to set her up with Dr. Yap.
  • Call Back: Tina moans on the floor in "Sheesh! Cab, Bob?" like in "Sexy Dance Fighting".
    • Tina's zombie fantasy comes back at the end of Episode 6 with angel wings and her unicorn poster comes to life in her Imagine Spot.
    • One of the flyers Bob's kids hand out in "Burger Wars" flies past in a scene in the next episode.
  • Camp Gay: The Fuzzy Buddies (again).
  • Capoeira: Tina takes a Capoeira class in one episode because she has a crush on the instructor.
  • Cassandra Truth: In the first episode, when Bob admits to Linda he forgot her birthday again, but she thinks he's actually planning a surprise party.

Linda: I can see you smiling.
Bob: I'm not smiling!
Linda: You're smiling with your eyes.

  • Characterization Marches On: Tina was first playing along fully with her siblings in a prank for the pilot; by Episode 4, she developed into a daughter that respects Bob much more.
  • City with No Name: The name of the city they live in is never mentioned, but it resembles Brooklyn because of the architecture and the amusent park on the beach.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Bob and his family.
    • Jimmy Pesto's kids also, though he's less accepting.
  • Comic Sutra: In "Bob Day Afternoon", Linda offers Bob some extra incentive to get out alive by offering to do "anything"... except that thing.
  • Comic Trio: Again, the Blecher children.
  • Companion Cube: Bob with his Keanu Reeves model from the movie Speed. He even argues with it. This only lasts one episode, though. In "Crawl Space", he has Louise's Kuchi Kopi nightlight.
  • Completely Missing the Point: Bob tells his kids it's not good to cheat at sports in the episode "Torpedo". Tina then immediately asks if he and their mother are getting a divorce. Cue the Flat What from Bob. Further point missing ensues.

Gene: "I call Mom!"
Louise: "I call Dad!"
Tina: "Now there's no one left for me."

  • Couch Gag: The business to the right of Bob's Burgers is different in every opening. In the episode proper, it is always shown as being "For Rent", except in "Burger Wars" where the raccoon sanctuary shown in the opening is apparently still there.
    • Also, as of the second season, the ending credits are different for each episode.
  • Credits Gag: The scene in the credits with Bob and his kids working in the kitchen is changed to relate to the episode, even being in 8-bit style in the episode where Bob becomes addicted to an arcade game. This was occasionally done in Season 1, but starting in Season 2, it applied to every episode.
  • Creepy Twins: The Pesto Twins.
  • Debate and Switch: Entire conflict in "Sacred Cow" was solved by said cow almost getting hit by a car and then dying of a cow heart attack.
  • Department of Redundancy Department: In the pilot, the meal of the day is called "New Bacon-nings", served with bacon.
    • Mort's line, "I've been murdered... to DEATH!" in "Hamburger Dinner Theater".
  • Designated Monkey: Tina in Season 2
  • Different in Every Episode: The Burger of the Day that is posted on the wall changes every episode. It will also change during episodes that take place over multiple days.
  • The Ditz: Gene, full stop.
  • Don't Explain the Joke: A Burger of the Day named "Child Molester" (it comes with a side order of candy) is disturbing enough without Louise trying to explain the name.
  • Drag Queen: When Bob starts driving a taxi, he befriends three of them, and they're portrayed fairly sympathetically. Despite being called transvestites, one of them seems to be a pre-op transwoman who hasn't been able to get surgery.
  • Dropped a Bridget On Him: Mort in Episode 6.
  • Elephant in the Living Room: Tina having a sad look on her face.
  • Everything's Better with Chickens: One appearedin Linda's butt nighmare.
  • Everything's Better with Cows: Moo-lissa.
  • Everything's Better with Monkeys: At the end of Linda's butt dream.
  • Everything's Worse with Bears: Does a man in a bear suit count?
  • Expy Bob has a similar personality ofTom as well as Chris.
  • Fan Fiction: Tina likes to write "Erotic Friendfiction".
  • The Fun in Funeral: Mort is this.
  • Funny Background Event: Happens occasional, like in the pilot.
    • "Sheesh! Cab, Bob?" has Tina and Eugene getting slapped by Louise repeatedly
    • "Bob Day Afternoon" has a cop who removes his headphones every time Louise screams into the phone.
  • Gasshole: Gloria and Tammy.
  • Gentle Giant: Teddy.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: Would've had it's own page regarding Tina and the last two episodes of Season 2.
    • In the first episode, Tina said that her "crotch" was itchy, scratched it with one hand and showed it to Hugo.
    • In "Bad Tina", Tina imagines Jimmy Jr. and a zombie touching her butt.
    • In "Beefsquatch", Gene told Louise that he hot-glued his weiner to his remote-controlled helicopter
    • Also in "Beefsquatch", Linda flashed her breast near the end.
  • Gonk: The guy in the pelican suit and the guy in the cotton candy suit.
  • Gosh Darn It to Heck: In "Beefsquatch", Linda tries to stop a live show by swearing on camera, but none of her "swearwords" are anything close to offensive. She then resorts to flashing her breasts.
  • Gross-Out Show: Oh, where do we begin?
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Near the end of "Bad Tina", Tammy was defeated by farting too much.
  • Hollywood Density: Somehow characters managed to carry taffy dummy around and not notice it being stuffed with gold.
  • Homage: To Dumbo's Pink Elephants on Parade with "BUTTS, BUTTS, BUTTS, BUTTS"
  • Hooker with a Heart of Gold: The transvestites in Episode 6.
  • Hypocritical Heartwarming: In "Bad Tina", Gene and Louise blackmail Tina into doing their chores. Then they find out her school frenemy is blackmailing her into getting into trouble. Suffice it to say she now has them to contend with.
  • Hypocritical Humor: In "The Belchies", after Tina invites Jimmy Jr. without asking, Jimmy Jr. brings his friend Zeke, leading to this exchange.

Tina: Zeke?! Jimmy Jr., you don't just invite someone without asking!
Louise: Yeah! Yeah! We're in agreement on that Tina!
Tina: Okay, good.

  • Iconic Item: Louise is never seen without her pink bunny ears hat.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: The restaurant doesn't actually serve human flesh, of course. But rumors that it does, attract the attention of a club for "adventurous eaters".
    • The Belchers were cannibals in the original pitch.
  • Incredibly Lame Pun: Used by the documentary guys with the cow in the 3rd episode: "It's a COW-NT DOWN!!"
    • The names of the "specials of the day" are mostly bad puns.
    • Food Court.
  • Instrument of Murder: Banjo from the Spaghetti Western that Bob and Gene watch has an instrument (guess which one) that shoots bullets.
  • Intercourse with You: In "Food Truckin'", there's a hippie singer who claims to be singing about whales, but she's really singing about her vagina. It's not subtle. The fact that she seems to be orgasming while singing doesn't help.

Oh it's hot and wet and slick / And it's making a everybody sick / Oil spill / Oil spill / Oil spill
Bob: Euch, you were right. It's not subtle.

  • It Amused Me: Many of Louise's antics stem from this.
  • It's All About Me: Linda in the last of "Hamburger Dinner Theater" towards Bob.
  • Jewish Mother: While her religion is apparently Catholic (she takes Eucharist), Linda has a lot of traits of this trope. This could also apply to Linda's mother.
  • Just One More Level: Bob goes through this when they buy a "Burger Boss" arcade game, but mainly because he was trying to beat Jimmy Pesto's high score, whose initials are "BOB SUX". When Linda takes it away, he has to go with his kids to an old-fashioned arcade to beat the score.
  • Kangaroos Represent Australia: One appeared during the butt song scene in "Art Crawl".
  • Limited Wardrobe: For the most part, the main characters always were the same thing. The most common variation of their outfit is the addition of an apron.
  • Little Girls Kick Shins: In "Bob Day Afternoon", Louise does this to the hostage negotiator when they're fighting over the phone. He kicks back.
  • Look Both Ways: Double Subverted. The cow is about to get hit by a van when Bob and Andy are arguing, but the van stops just short. Then the cow dies of a heart attack.
  • Meaningful Name: Mort (French for death) runs the crematorium next door.
  • Mister Big: Louise's Kuchi Kopi night light doll.
  • Most Fanfic Writers Are Girls: Tina writes a lot of it, more specifically "Erotic Friend Fiction", mostly involving her love interest Jimmy Pesto Jr.
    • However, she started writing those because she had already written erotic fanfiction of every tv show, movie and book series she could think of.
  • Nice Hat: Louise is the Strange Girl, therefore she wears the strange hat.
  • MST: Bob and Louise apparently do this regularly and call themselves "The Burn Unit". Also, Bob and the kids do this with the art in the episode "Art Crawl".
  • Old Shame: Jimmy Pesto Senior goes to the transvestite hookers for some sort of diaper fetish.
    • He also tries to stop Bob from revealing his real name to his patrons.
  • Only Sane Man: Bob is often this to his family, friends and customers.
  • Parody Assistance: The episode "The Belchies" features a song in the end credits that's a send-up of "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough" sung by Cyndi Lauper.
  • Playing Both Sides: Louise when Bob and Gene start playing dirty tricks on each other in "Beefsquatch".
  • Put on a Bus: The Zombies from Tina's dream
  • Raging Stiffie: In "The Belchies", Linda drop a pill on Bob's drink. He's stuck with a boner for the later half of the episode. Linda even has it help them find their kids.
  • Refuge in Audacity: The pilot is about suspected cannibalism in the restaurant.
  • Seinfeldian Conversation: A Once an Episode occurrence, often between Bob and Teddy.
  • Shallow Love Interest: Jimmy Jr. to Tina. Quite possibly intentional.
  • Shocking Swerve: In-universe. Linda started murder mystery with a prologue where she was claiming she's not a murderer, but she was. There was zero Foreshadowing or even sense in it. Public was not amused.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Show Within a Show: The western movie series Banjo.
  • Sitcom Arch Nemesis: Jimmy Pesto...
    • Also, Hugo the Health Inspector.
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Louise sometimes goes into this.
  • Twincest: The Pesto Twins (like it's not obvious enough? In the episode "Art Crawl", they hugged each other and you can hear Olly saying "sugar". Further episodes for more evidence.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Louise is Type 1 with The Pesto Twins. They trust her blindly, no matter how obvious it is that she's only taking advantage of them.
  • Walk On the Wild Side Episode: In one episode, the normally shy and awkward Tina was influenced into wearing makeup, dressing like a whore, and using lots of slang by a new student. Tina was also blackmailed into cutting class with her by threatening to show her crush her "erotic friend fiction" of him.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: "WE'RE THE FUZZY BUDDIES!"
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